THIS effective trick can be done with any pack of cards. Begin by having the pack shuffled by a spectator. In taking it back sight the bottom card, make an overhand shuffle, bringing it to the top and note also the bottom card at the end of the shuffle. Go to a lady and say you will make a predic...

USING any pack, the Joker is first placed face up and a spectator is asked to shuffle the cards, then take out any face-down card and without looking at it put it in his inside coat pocket with its back outwards. This done he passes the pack to a second person who does the same thing. The process...

IN THIS trick a special move is necessary that is not at all difficult. It is to apparently show the faces of all the cards but to keep one hidden. You have the card on the top, turn pack face outwards and run the cards off one by one from the left hand into the right. When you are about two thir...

WITH any pack, after it has been well shuffled, secretly sight the two top cards. Riffle shuffle retaining these cards on the top. Put the pack down and have a spectator cut it at about the middle. Invite him to touch one packet. Whichever he touches interpret his choice so that he gets the one w...

ALLOW a spectator to make a free selection of a card from a freely shuffled pack. Let him replace it anywhere as you ruffle the outer ends of the pack. By keeping a tight hold of the inner ends you prevent the card from going right home. Tap the inner ends quite even and then give the protruding ...

ANY pack, borrowed if possible, may be used. Have the cards thoroughly shuffled by one or more spectators. Take it back and run through it to find and remove the QC, the most gossipy of all the Queens. In doing this spread the four top cards so that you can see and memorize their indices. Read th...

EFFECT. From a face-up borrowed pack a spectator deals the red cards face down on your left hand, the black cards face up on your right hand. Putting the black cards face up on the table, hand him the red ones to shuffle. Write something on a piece of paper, fold it and lay it down. The spectator...

IN TAKING a pack from its case quickly note the top two cards and let them slip back into the case as you take out the remainder. On a slip of paper write the names of these two cards, fold it and hand it to someone to hold. Have the pack shuffled, then cut into two parts and one part handed to y...

EFFECT. A spectator shuffles a pack of cards, which can be his own, and then spreads the cards face down on a table. He points to any card he pleases, and that card is removed from the pack and kept in full view. Next he is asked to think of a card. He names it and that card is missing from the p...

THE following five cards are placed face up in an even row on the table, KH, 7C, AD, 4H and 9D. The performer addresses a spectator, somewhat as follows: "I have picked out five cards at random and I want you to mentally select just one. You have an unrestricted choice and You must not think that...

USING any pack that has been freely shuffled, secretly note and remember the top and bottom cards. Looking through the pack to remove the Joker gives a good opportunity for doing this. Then riffle shuffle letting the last card of the left-hand portion fall first, and the last card of the right-ha...

IN THIS version the two packs are shuffled and exchanged, then both are again shuffled and exchanged but before handing over your pack you sight the top card. The best way to do this is to sight the bottom card when taking the pack from the spectator then with an overhand shuffle bring that card ...

EFFECT. A card selected by spectator while pack is in his own hands, placed in performer's pack and card selected by performer from his pack, placed in spectator's pack. These two unknown selected cards turn out to be the same card. Unprepared packs. REQUIREMENTS. Two ordinary packs, same size, w...

ONE of the earliest versions of the effect.
Two packs, red-backed and blue-backed are used, they may be borrowed since no preparation is necessary, also an opaque envelope. Show the packs face up one in each hand. Call attention to the envelope and in order to pick it up put the pack in your righ...

MOST of the tricks along this line use only one spectator and the performer. Now it is possible to use two spectators for a double effect. Two ordinary packs are needed. The working will suffice to make clear the effect itself. Hand one pack to one person and have him shuffle. As he finishes this...

HERE again the key card with pencil dot on top left and lower right corners is used. Let the Pack be thoroughly shuffled and four cards be freely drawn. Fan the pack to show the cards well mixed, spot the dotted card and split the pack so that the first card is returned under it. Cut the pack sev...

BEFOREHAND take a spot card, a 7 for instance, and with a pin prick the card on the face just near the top index. This will raise a tiny lump on the back of the card which can be felt with the ball of the thumb as you deal the cards. Put this card seventh from the bottom of the pack. To present t...

IN TAKING back a pack which has been shuffled by a spectator, note and remember the bottom card. Turn your back and holding the pack behind you invite a spectator to make a free cut, then take off the card on the lower section, look at it and remember it. As he looks at it turn facing him and exp...

RUN through any well-shuffled pack to remove the Joker and, as you do this, note and memorize the three top cards. Hand the pack to a spectator and tell him to deal three heaps face down. After he has dealt several rounds tell him he can deal irregularly, two on one heap, three on another and so ...

WITH any complete pack a spectator, after shuffling it, selects a card by thrusting the Joker into it and noting the card that lies above it. He squares the pack and cuts it as often as he wishes, then deals the cards into the face of the card about half an inch diagonally from the outer index wh...

ANY pack may be used: have it thoroughly shuffled by a spectator and in taking it back sight the bottom card. Put the pack on the table after secretly making a mark on the top card with your thumbnail. Instruct the spectators that after you leave the room some of them (any number) are to draw car...

HAVE a spectator shuffle the pack, take it and run cards from the left hand into the right, asking him to stop you at any point. When he does so separate the cards at that point and hold the right-hand packet before his eyes, spreading the indices of the last five or six cards and telling him to ...

A DOUBLE-BACKED card is required. Have this on the top of the pack. False shuffle and cut, leaving it in that position. Allow a spectator to make a free choice of one card and note it. Cut the pack about the middle, at the same time slipping the double-backed card on top of the lower portion, and...

REQUIRED two packs, one red-backed, the other blue, also a double-backed card, one side red the other side blue, to match the packs. The double-backed card is set, blue side up on the blue-backed pack. Allow a spectator to take any card from the blue pack, examine it and place it face up on that ...

TWO packs are required; one red-backed, the other blue-also a double-back card, one side red the other side blue. The red side is prepared with diachylon and the card is placed red side down on top of the blue pack. All is then ready. Hand out both packs to be shuffled. Take them back and from th...

TWO packs are required, one blue-backed, the other red, together with a double-backed card one side of which is red and the other blue. From the red pack take any card and place it face upwards third from the bottom of the blue pack. Under this put the card you wish to force, face downwards, and ...

IN ADDITION to a double-backed card you require an envelope, a slip of paper and a pencil. Beforehand take any two cards, say AC and 2S and write their names on the slip of paper. Put this in the envelope and fasten the flap down. Place any indifferent card face up between the face-down AC and 2S...

REQUIRED. a double-faced card, say AH-KD. Put this on the bottom of a regular pack showing the AH face, next to it place the unprepared KD and in the middle of the pack, reversed, put the AH. Begin by taking off the two bottom cards, showing their faces and drop them into the hat. Remove the doub...

THE plot of the trick is the usual one. Four A's are placed on a table and three indifferent cards put on each. One pile is chosen, the A's vanish from the other three piles and all four are found in the pile selected. The use of double-faced cards makes the trick easy to work and very convincing...

A DOUBLE-FACED card, say AH-KD, is placed second from the bottom in an ordinary pack, with the KD side as the back of the card and the real AH on the bottom of the pack. Thus prepared, execute a riffle shuffle, leaving the two bottom cards as they were. Make the Hindu shuffle, asking anyone to ca...

ON THE bottom of regular pack place the KD, and next to it a double-faced card, AH-KD, with the KD side showing. Borrow a hat, show the two bottom cards and drop them from the pack into a hat, but awkwardly and visibly let another card fall also. Remove the double-faced card as the KD and place i...

THIS term is applied to cards the backs of which are so patterned that if after they have been arranged exactly the same way of the reversal of a card, end for end, can be detected by the difference in the pattern. The principle is by no means a new one but Charles Jordan was probably the first t...

HERE is a way to set a pack, which may have been borrowed, right in front of the spectators. Have a card selected, noted, returned and secretly pass it to the top. Bring it to the bottom with an overhand shuffle and sight it, then send it to the middle with a riffle shuffle. State that you will d...

THIS trick depends on a principle that is very little known even by magicians and should he particularly noted. Hand a one-way pack, properly arranged, of course, to a spectator to shuffle. This done give him the following instructions: 'Fan the cards with their faces towards you, remove any card...

FROM a one-way pack which has been thoroughly shuffled fan off five cards in the right hand, turn the rest of the cards face down and hold the pack with its outer end pointing to the right. Hold the fanned five cards with their faces towards a spectator and ask him to mentally select just one car...

EFFECT. Any pack of cards is shuffled by a spectator and handed to the performer, who lays it face down on the table and asks a person to cut the pack at about the center; to look at and remember the card on the top of the lower part, replace the card and put the portion cut off on top. The spect...

FROM a one-way pack, arranged in order, allow a spectator to freely select any card, note what it is and push it back into the pack at any point, you, of course, having first turned the pack around. Shuffle overhand and have the pack cut several times. Announce that you have such control over the...

THE invention of the late Louis Haley, this trick first appeared in print in The Genii, Oct. 1936. First secretly give the inner end of the whole pack a sharp bend by squeezing the inner corners downward between the left second finger and thumb over the first finger which is doubled below the pac...

EFFECT. Any pack may be used. Performer turns his back. A spectator freely selects a card, replaces it reversed in the middle of the pack, squares the cards and lays a handkerchief over them. Performer lifts the pack and handkerchief and a card is seen to rise from the pack raising the fabric. Th...

THIS is one of the easiest as well as one of the most effective presentations of this often seen effect. The magician has a card selected from a group of cards cut from the top of the pack. An elastic band is snapped around the performer's half of the pack and the selected card is returned to the...

A CARD is taken, noted, replaced and the pack shuffled and cut. The pack is handed to the spectator with the request that he find his own card and save the performer worry and trouble. Ask him to start dealing the cards face down, to stop at any number he may think of between one and ten so that ...

FOR this trick it is best to use a new pack of Bicycle cards, preferably of the air-cushion finish, with white border. Sort out the black and the red cards. Place a red card and a black card back to back and continue this arrangement with all of the cards, so that all the black cards are face upw...

The pack in use must be a pre-arranged one, a switch being made with the ordinary pack of similar backs. Allow a spectator to make a free selection of one card from the set-cup pack. Cut the pack and sight the bottom card. Proceed to name the chosen card from it by pretended lip-reading with the ...

In gathering up the cards after the last trick, reset the pack and continue as follows:
After false shuffling the pack and having it cut several times with complete cuts, borrow an envelope and hand it with a pencil and a pad to a spectator. Approach another person, fan the pack behind your back ...

BEFOREHAND arrange a pack of cards so that every second card from the top is a H, thus; the second card, the fourth card, the sixth card and so on are all H's, running from the A up to the 10. In your right-hand coat pocket have a set of duplicate H cards in the same order. Ask a spectator to cal...

BEFOREHAND separate the red suits and the black into two packets. Reverse one packet, put the two together and shuffle the pack thoroughly. Show the faces of the cards proving they are well mixed, then separate the reversed packets with an apparent cut as already explained. Until you can do this ...

PICK out the four A's and put them on the table face downwards. To show them, take them by their outer ends and turn them over lengthwise. They must be in a packet one on top of the other. Now turn them face down sideways and they will have been reversed. Replace them thus in different parts of t...

A CARD having been freely chosen, returned to the reversed pack and the card well shuffled, take the pack and put it behind your back. Ask what number the spectator would like it to appear at. Strip the card out and put it second from the bottom. Bring the pack forward, show the bottom card, turn...

WITH the selected card reversed in the pack as usual, hold the pack by the two ends between your hands, face downwards. Ask the spectator to throw a handkerchief over the pack. Then saying, 'Perhaps it will be better to have the pack in sight all the time,' draw the pack away with one hand, the o...

WHEN the shuffled pack with the reversed chosen card is returned to you, cut the pack once at the chosen card bringing it to the bottom. Place the pack in a spectator's pocket, sighting the card but not allowing anyone else to see it. Have a number called. Bring the cards out one by one taking th...

THE effect is that a card is selected, replaced in the pack and the pack wrapped in a handkerchief. This is then gently shaken and the card penetrates it. After the pack with the reversed chosen card is returned to you, lay it face up on your right palm with the narrow ends inwards. Throw the han...

AFTER the usual preliminaries, the pack with the chosen card reversed in it is returned to you. Shuffle it overhand by the ends and bring the chosen card to the top. Put the pack on the table, and cut it into two heaps. Borrow a handkerchief and a penknife, open one blade and lay the knife down. ...

THIS special pack consists of twenty-six ordinary cards, all different, and twenty-six short cards all of the same suit and value. The latter may be narrower as well as shorter, but short duplicates only are generally used. The pack is set up by arranging the two sets alternately, thus every othe...

WHEN a knife blade is thrust into the ruffled pack it will, as has already been seen, rest on the back of the force card. If, however, you want to have the card appear as the bottom card of the upper portion, thrust the point of the knife in a downward direction which will bring it below the shor...

THE card is selected, returned, and the pack wrapped in paper. A knife is thrust through the paper into the pack and the card will rest on the knife either above or below it.

AN EASY but effective force for stage or platform work can be made with the Svengali pack. An unprepared easel is required which has a ledge on which you can stand seven or eight packets of cards. Having shuffled and cut the prepared pack, show the faces all different. Next, while exhibiting and ...

IT IS not certainly known who devised this variation of the combination of long and short cards, but the title, 'Mene-Tekel', was first applied to it by the late W. D. Leroy, the well-known magical dealer of Boston. Like the Svengali pack it consists of twenty-six ordinary cards and twenty-six sh...

A CARD having been drawn and the duplicate brought to the top, you very thoughtfully turn your back to enable the spectator to show the selected card to everyone else. Seize the opportunity to note what the top card is and slip it into a pocket. Turn around, have the chosen card replaced, ruffle ...

HAVE three cards selected and pass the duplicates to the top in the manner explained above. Each spectator then pushes his card into the pack which you square up each time in the fairest possible way. Drop the pack into a borrowed hat and proceed to mix the cards, apparently, by shaking the hat v...

A CARD having been chosen, its duplicate brought to the top, the card itself replaced in the pack and the pack squared up, have a number called, suppose it is fifteen, and announce that you will make the card pass magically to that number. First, however, show that it is not already at that numbe...

BRING the duplicate of the first card to the top as already explained, leave the chosen card in the first spectator's hands and go to a second person. When he draws a card do not pass the upper portion to the bottom as before, simply lower the top packet to the side of the lower one and with the ...

A FAKE is required consisting of two pieces of cardboard, a little larger than a card, fastened together around two sides and one end byadhesive tape or pasted paper. There should be space enough between the pieces of cardboard to take three cards. Half an inch from the top of each piece and midw...

THE plot of the trick is the usual one. Four A's are placed on a table and three indifferent cards put on each. One pile is chosen, the A's vanish from the other three piles and all four are found in the pile selected. The use of double-faced cards makes the trick easy to work and very convincing...

FOR this effect, which Mr. Gravatt considers one of the best of the tricks of its type extant, you require a Mene-Tekel pack having red backs, and an ordinary pack with blue backs. Show the red-backed cards all different, have a card selected, and bring the duplicate to the top. Take the chosen c...

TAKE any court card face downward and place a sixpence on the center of its back. Hold the coin firmly with the thumbs and press firmly and evenly with the fingers from underneath all around the card. The shape of the coin will be clearly impressed on the card, a rim, imperceptible to the eye, be...

HAVE the short card on the bottom and the card you want to force on the top of the pack. Ask a spectator what month he was born in, suppose he says 'May'. Illustrate then just what you want him to do. Deal the first card on the table calling it January and continue the deal calling the next card ...

A PACK of one-way cards, Bicycle Rider cards, for preference, in which the mark to be noted is near the upper left-hand corner. The trick is presented as a purely mental feat and you take pains to apparently eliminate all possibility of trickery. After having the pack shuffled hold it behind your...

PERFORMER has any card freely selected and returned to the pack. Pack is shuffled and handed to the spectator who is instructed to deal the cards one at a time on to performer's hand and any time he feels like it to stop and the selected card is found there. This effect is about 97 per cent perfe...

WE ARE pleased to be able to offer through the courtesy of Jack McMillen, the inventor, a new method of working the rising card experiment that is certain to take its place among the thousand and one ways of working it already in existence. For impromptu work this has many distinctive features. N...

I DON'T know where Mr. James got his title for this mystery, but any time anyone can produce such a problem I'll be the last to argue over what it is to be called. Certainly no concocted effect has in years been so original in effect upon the watchers. I have used the problem any number of times ...

IF POSSIBLE borrow both the cards and the envelope for use in this trick. First have the pack shuffled freely and sight the top card. Next borrow an envelope and paper, write down the name of the card just sighted, fold the paper and enclose it in the envelope. Casually lay the envelope on the pa...